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The British prison service is spending £70m a year treating drug addicts when, according to insiders interviewed for a BBC radio investigation, corrupt warders are responsible for the majority of the drugs traffic into jails. At England's largest prison, Wandsworth, they have tried to put a figure on the amount of drugs being smuggled inside. "A crude estimate on the value of drugs in Wandsworth is about £1m a year," says David Jamieson, the chairman of Wandsworth's independent monitoring board. "What we're talking about is a large-scale business... there are some serious players involved in this."

The penny drops. Doh! Better late than never. Did anyone really believe all these drugs were being secreted in the nooks and crannies of assorted visiting girlfriends and wives. Jeez. OF COURSE it's the fucking warders. It always has been. We now have the ludicrous situation where it is, on average, easier to get drugs in prison than outside. Easier and less risky. There are no plain clothed coppers hanging around the yard ready to pounce on your latest drug deal, I can tell you. Warders are mostly low life. Supported by the last bastion of restrictive practices they are a law unto themselves. But no politician will grasp the nettle. And you can be sure that, ironically, the biggest defenders of these scumbags and the greatest opposition to reducing their power will come not from the right but from the left.